The Plight Of The North American Indians

            The Plight of The North American Indians.
            
             The history and culture of the American Indian is sadly misrepresented because of .
             culture biases and inaccurate reports. In order to give a more accurate report of the .
             American Indian one must look at period before the Europeans, the invasion of the .
             Europeans and finally present time.
             .
             Before we can set out on the road to success, we have to know .
             where we are going, and before we can know that we must .
             determine where we are have been in the past. It seems a basic .
             requirement to study the history of our Indian people. America has .
             much to learn about the heritage of our American Indians. Only .
             through this study can we as a nation do what must be done if out .
             treatment of the American Indian is not to be marked down for all .
             time as a national disgrace. (Pres. John F. Kennedy) .
             When the Europeans first arrived on the shores of America they found hundreds of .
             different tribes of people that they named "Indians". The Europeans immediately .
             recognized the immense wealth of natural resources that this vast and diverse land had.
             Unfortunately they failed to recognize a non-materialistic wealth i.e. spiritual, cultural .
             and intellectual the Indians had achieved over centuries. .
             .
             Archeological evidence indicates early Indian cultures existed 10,000 BC. But the .
             questions that still remains, how did early Indians arrive on the North America continent. .
             One theory is during the Pleistocene ice age during "a two million year period, the floor .
             of the Bering Strait stood high and dry, linking Siberia and Alaska." (National .
             Geographic Society 1974) As the Ice Age ended and extreme changes in the climate .
             occurred causing change in animal and plant life so did the lifestyle of the Paleo-Indian. .
             During the Archaic Period, lifestyles of the Paleo-Indians became more stable and they .
             began settling in the Northeast region.